Santa
Clara County
Biographies
JOHN SMITH CONNER
One of the most valuable and delightful ranches
in the neighborhood of Santa Clara is that owned and occupied by Mrs. John
Smith Conner, half a mile from the city, and on the Los Gatos road. This
property is eloquent of the industry and wise management of the man who gained
constant inspiration from its fertility and resource, and who surrounded
himself and family with all the aids to a happy and contented life possible in
this well-favored state. He lived here from 1874 until his death, in November,
1902, one of the truest hearted and noblest of the pioneers of 1855.
Prior to coming to California, John
Smith Conner lived in Lancaster county, N. H., where
his birth occurred December 16, 1833. His parents, Enoch F. and Elizabeth
(Bachelor) Conner, were also natives of New Hampshire, and the former helped to
build Bunker Hill Monument. He was a large land owner and successful farmer,
and with his wife lived to an advanced age. John S. Conner began an independent
life with a limited education and no appreciable means, yet these early
deficiencies were remedied as his expectations were realized and leisure was
permitted him in which to read and study. He came to the west by way of Panama
during the summer of 1855, and for five years engaged in mining in the northern
part of the state. After coming to the Santa Clara valley
in 1860 he
attended the Pacific University at Santa Clara, and at the same time lived on
the ranch upon which has since been built the county infirmary. In 1874 he sold
this property to the county, later purchasing the farm now owned by his wife,
and which at that time consisted of eighty acres. He was one of the early fruit
raisers of his neighborhood, having twenty acres under prunes, and the balance
of his land under grain and hay.
In 1862 Mr. Conner established a
home of his own, marrying Sarah J. West, who was born in New Jersey, and
educated in the Female Seminary at Santa Clara. Mrs. Conner is a daughter of
Captain John and Hannah Maria (Shay) West, natives of New Jersey and New York
respectively. Capt. John West came to California in 1850, and at San Francisco
established a line of schooners plying between there and Alviso, Santa Clara
county. In 1855 he removed to Santa Clara county, took
up a ranch of twenty acres, and died there in November, 1902, two weeks after
the death of his son-in-law, Mr. Conner. He continued to run his line of
schooners on the bay until 1877, and after that devoted his time exclusively to
his ranch. His wife died in 1901.
Mrs. Conner has managed the ranch
since her husband’s death, and as far as possible is carrying out his wise and
paying policy. She now has sixty-two acres, and one of the finest rural
residences in this part of Santa Clara county. During
a comparatively short space of time she was bereaved by the death of her
mother, husband, father and brother, but she has courageously taken up her
burden of life, and is demonstrating the philosophy of looking on the bright
side of existence.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1195-1196. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.